I felt that it wasn't enough, that little bit of reasoning in the
match-making page. I don't know why, but I just did (and boy, that's
ballooned into something bigger, eh?). So, what am I going to rant about
here? Well, keep reading.

Ryouga's Choices

Well, then. In the series (anime and manga), he's only had two real
love interests, Akane and Akari. Akane's destined for Ranma, so that's a
non-answer (and she never even seems to pick up that he likes her).
Akari...you might think it's perfect. She loves him, and she loves pigs,
and she loves him especially for being half-pig. But somehow, that's too
easy. Plus, the only reason she goes after him at first is that he
managed to defeat her guardian sumo pig, Katsunishiki. (Kinda reminds me
of Shampoo getting defeated by Ranma.) And...well, Marisa Price handled
Akari excellently in her fanfic, "A Lesson in Love." Ryouga
seemed to have fallen in love with the idea of Akari, this sweet,
caring, loving girl who also loved his curse. But! Ryouga hates his
curse, and hates pigs, moreso now because of that curse. Ryouga's not
very experienced in dealing with girls, so it would be very easy for him
to fall in love with someone who seems to show some sort of interest in
him, namely Akari. And you know about all those times he fell for the
"instant fiancee" trick that Ranma-chan pulled on him.... Now,
I don't dislike Akari--she's a very nice, loving girl, from what I
know--but I don't think she's right for Ryouga. Seriously! No offense to
you Akari-lovers.

So what about other options, like the ones in fanfics? "Putting
Your Heart"/Furinkan Summer, for example. Here, Bailesu has Nabiki
and Ryouga fall in love. Now, this series is an excellent one, but I
don't really like this pairing. (It's not the worst possibility,
however...but there's better out there.) The one thing most of all is
that it took a love potion dumped on both for them to fall in
love with each other. There had been nothing there before....
Fortunately, it's a permanent thing, so it works out for them. But...I
just don't like it. :P

Another one that seems to have become somewhat popular is Kodachi and
Ryouga. I've seen it done three times; two are in the Elseworlds series,
and one is the 20 Years Later (20YL) story. I must admit, it's kind of
intriguing, especially how Kodachi turns out for the better--Ryouga,
being the honorable guy he is, manages to change her in all of those
stories. But it's still not right. I don't like it, except perhaps for a
morbid curiosity-type thing. Plus, this is an alternate Ranmaverse, so
it probably wouldn't hold up in the real one. And I am talking
about the real Ranmaverse, here.

There's this one series (not posted on raac, apparently) about this
new half-cat girl named Neko...she turns into Ryouga's love interest.
I like the series; it's well written, but I don't like it when a
new character needs to be introduced so as to fill in as a love interest
for one of the main cast. Kind of a cop out...unsatisfying, somehow.
It'd be okay for, say, Akari, or Konatsu, or Tsubasa, or Gosunkugi,
or...etc., perhaps, but not someone as central as Ryouga. One other
thing that I don't like about this fic--Ukyou doesn't show up at all
except for only one of the stories...and even then, she doesn't seem all
that important to the story. Grr.

Ukyou's
Choices

Ranma's out, so that leaves...Tsubasa and Konatsu. Really, what sort
of choices are those? Granted, she may dress like a guy a lot, but does
that mean she goes for male crossdressers? I don't think so. Part of the
reason I got to like Ukyou so much is that I kind of felt sorry for her;
all throughout the series, it seems like there's no real man who likes
her. She certainly deserves someone a lot better. Someone worthy of
her.

All too often, in the fanfics, she gets kind of overlooked...or
killed off. (And since she's my favorite female character, that really
ticks me off--both cases, but particularly the latter. This is also why
this section will be somewhat shorter than Ryouga's.) For Furinkan
Summer, Bailesu has Tsubasa turn himself into "Kurusawa Hayao"
and dress like a guy. I'll tell you, it's not bad, and it even works
somewhat, but...still, it's not really right. In 20YL, some random
gaijin gets thrown in somewhere for her to marry. What goes for Ryouga
above in relation to new characters being a love interest goes for Ukyou
as well. I find her VERY central to the Ranmaverse...she's my favorite
fe--oh, you've heard that enough by now. As for the Elseworlds series,
in one of them, there's a new character created, Saotome Kaneda, Ranma's
younger brother. He gets involved with Ukyou in that one...now, for that
story, he's very central, so I don't mind so much...it's like Ukyou
going for another main character. But this is an Elseworlds fic, so it
doesn't apply. There are a few fics where she does end up with Ranma,
but I covered my objection to that earlier. There's one thing that I've
noticed...I've not yet seen any serious story where she and Konatsu get
together. Not like that's a major loss, though....

Okay, Blade! Fine! Well, the Archdeacon of Ucchan (Blade) has always
held that Tarou Pansuto would be the best match for Ukyou. Now, before
anyone dismisses it as ridiculous--don't. It's actually somewhat
reasonable. Blade holds that they would get along pretty well, something
which I would agree with. Ukyou is too nice to make fun of Tarou's name,
while Tarou would consider Ukyou's intelligence to be refreshingly high,
in comparison with the rest of the Nerima gang. Once Pansuto and Ranma
stopped trying to beat each other up so much, the two (that is, Ukyou
and Tarou) would make pretty good friends, given the chance. However, I
don't really see them going for each other. Their personalities differ
rather strongly. Blade admits that Tarou is one of the real villains in
Ranma. (I don't count Ryouga because, as much as he and Ranma are at
each other's throats, Ryouga isn't the villainous type--he's too
honorable and--at times--pathetic to fit the characterization.) Ukyou
doesn't seem to be the type to go for someone who could envision himself
taking over the world (true, it might have been said partly in jest, but
still--). Tarou, in the meanwhile, seems too hellbent on getting his
name fixed up to really consider anything in the romance area. Maybe
after it was done, but...eh. One last thing is...I don't believe that
the two really have ever met in the manga. At least, that's what I
recall Blade telling me. I suppose that Tarou would be among my top
choices for Ukyou. Okay, Blade? You've at least won a partial
victory.... ^_^

The Logical Choice

So, then, what's left for these two? Each other, of course! That's
what the whole point of this has been. Like I said in the matchmaking
page, they're so right for each other. Both are lonely; Ryouga's
honorable and devoted; Ukyou's kawaii, intelligent, and sweet.... I can
see it very easily. And Takahashi-san's acknowledged the possibilty in
the Cave of Lost Love stuff. (I think maybe she should have kept on
going and developed that idea, but the main point of Ranma 1/2
is...well, Ranma and Akane. For those of you who say that the
two never showed any signs of affection more than friendship for each
other in the series, it's because they never really were given the
chance.) It must be said that this pairing is very popular with Ranma
fans out there. Others recognize the inevitability of this.... :) I'd
like to again emphasize that this isn't simply due to the fact that
Ukyou is my favorite Ranma character overall, and that Ryouga is my
favorite male character (tied with Mousse). I felt this way about this
coupling a while back, when Mousse and Shampoo were my favorites. (That
was at a time that I didn't know Ranma that well...I still like Shampoo,
by the way.) As I've said, I'm very fond of fanfics which do put the two
of these together, especially Marisa Price's, and RpM's "The More
Things Change&quot and its sequel(s). I'd love to write a fanfic that
gets these two together, but it's been done so often already.... *sniff*
I guess I won't do it, then, unless I can somehow make it original. I'm
very partial to fics that get them two together--except for Ranma 2096.
What happens to Ukyou there is NOT nice. O_o In fact, it's been
condemned by the Church of Ucchan (of which I am now one of the
deaconate, the Ambassador of Ryouga--not affiliated with the Church of
Ryouga, mind you). I won't tell you what it's about. If you really want
to know what happens there, go find out yourself, and I'm not telling
you where it is....

"Ukyou... I thought I was in love with her once. I was
with her during the time I disappeared. But... When I left her, I
had one reason for coming back to Nerima. And that reason was
YOU. I finally figured out that I DIDN'T love Akari, my mistake
was not making that clear to her before I left." Ryouga looked at
Ukyou with intense eyes.

She whispered, "And?"

Ryouga gave her a wan smile, and said, "It's you I love.
Not her. I love you, Ukyou. She's gone."

Suddenly Ukyou was in his arms, holding him tightly, as
if she never wanted to let him go. She looked up at him with
joyous eyes and said, "Oh Ryouga, you idiot. I love you too,
though god only knows why..."

I know this is a somewhat controversial thing. If you
agree with me--great! Send me your ideas and suggestions and stuff. If
you don't agree with me--that's okay. Just don't bombard me with email
to try to change my mind--it hasn't worked, and it won't. I'm sure that
I wouldn't be able to change your minds ('specially if you still
disagree after reading all of this page); you wouldn't be able to do
that with me either, so don't waste the energy.... Okay, enough
ranting.

Jason Langlois has actually written a story with this page in mind,
"Sweet
Dreams". Be sure to check it out. ^_^

Oh, keep going down...I've got some pics of them together. Most are
from the Cave of Lost Love ep. Click on them for the full picture.